An Unplanned Visit The pop with which William appeared in his parents-in-laws’ back garden was quiet, but either his arrival or a breeze upset the apple tree directly over his head enough that a small flurry of raindrops left over from an earlier shower fell into his wavy golden hair and trickled, ice-cold, down across his scalp. Cursing under his breath, he pressed his scarf to his neck to stop them going down the collar of his shirt before walking toward the door which led into the kitchen, feeling, as always, the faint surge of irritation with having to use a back door. They should have been waiting outside to usher him through the front door, for goodness’ sakes, honored even to have him willing to enter their hovel….
The main door was not locked, but he could not see anyone in the kitchen and so gave a perfunctory rap on the storm door. A moment later, his mother-in-law appeared - and her vaguely pleasant expression fell to nothing as soon as she recognized him on the stair.
“William,” she said, opening the door, but not moving aside to allow him in. “What are you doing here?”
William forced a smile. “With a greeting like that, Alison, you wouldn’t even think we were family!”
Alison flushed. “I’m sorry, I’m just - surprised.” As was, he had to admit, appropriate; he could not actually remember ever coming here before when it was not as Julian’s guest. Chris and Alison had both made an elaborate point of saying he was welcome anytime after he and Julian got engaged, but there was a difference, as he well knew, between offering an invitation and thinking it would be accepted, and while the Umlands all felt free to come and go in his house at will, he was not entirely sure that even his wife considered him a full part of the family, with the same rights and privileges enjoyed by her parents and siblings instead of just a necessary piece of apparatus for producing Cecily. “Is everything all right?”
“Of course, of course,” said William. “I just think I must have left my briefcase here yesterday evening, and as I have meetings tomorrow morning….”
Alison nodded, her expression still opaque somehow, and glanced over her shoulder before saying, “of course, come in….”
He followed her through the door, suppressing the desire to push her down the two stairs which led into the garden as well as he could, and walked through the kitchen toward the living room, the only part of the house he had entered yesterday. Before he got there, though, he stopped short in the vestibule. John’s presence did not surprise him, as he had had the regrettable knowledge that his brother-in-law had decided to come home for the weekend since yesterday, but that of the girl John was proffering a coat to did. She was, after all, very obviously not Miss Meeks, but yet there was still something familiar about her face, though he couldn’t quite place her.
“Evening, William,” said John, his voice too loud, moving abruptly, awkwardly, between William and the girl. “What are you doing here? Where’s Julian?”
“One of her charity board meetings,” said William slowly. “I came to get something I forgot yesterday - I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you had a...guest?”
John made an ungainly sort of gesture, somewhere between a shrug and a twitch. “Who’s just leaving,” he said.
“As I will be directly,” said William, assuming his absence was as welcome by John and John’s was by him. “Please don’t let me make you rush off, Miss…?”
“Murphy,” said the girl, stepping around John. She hardly came up to John’s shoulder, but did so with a degree of self-assurance which almost tricked the eye into thinking it was not so much that she was short as that everyone else was simply unnaturally tall - though of course, John hardly needed help looking like he was outside his natural environment, whatever that might be. He did that no matter where he was, when the mood struck him; here, in his own house, right now, after all, he was flapping about like a stork which had fallen in a vat of wine and then taken a concussion, and this was not unprecedented behavior. She, on the other hand, moved quite gracefully; she had light hair, neither red nor blonde, and light but saturated blue eyes and gave him the first smile he’d wrangled out of anyone in the house tonight as she proffered her hand, which he took very reluctantly, quite sure she was a Muggle. “But please, Miss Murphy is...some kindergarten teacher in Nova Scotia, or something,” she joked. “I’m just Joanie.”
“William Welles - the son-in-law,” he said. “Or John’s brother-in-law.” And then he realized where he had seen her before. “I’ve seen you at church,” he said. He looked at John. “I’ve seen you two talking,” he said, more to his brother-in-law than to Joanie Murphy.
“Good memory,” said John.
“I never forget a face,” said William matter-of-factly.
“Guess not,” said John. “Yes - we’re guilty of the grave and serious crime of talking in church. Joanie’s my friend.”
William looked from John to Joanie, then from Joanie to John. “Your...friend,” he repeated.
“It’s my good deed for a lifetime,” said Joanie. “We’ve known each other since we were kids, so I l like to catch up when the ex-pat graces us with his company.”
William supposed this made more sense than any other explanation. Lenore had either slept with John or lied about doing so just to annoy William, so she didn’t count, and Miss Meeks was apparently using him for a roof over her head aside from being insane, but only childhood affection or mind magic of some kind could explain Miss Murphy here going out of her way to see John. William didn’t even like the slim, petite, athletic sorts and had no particular liking for other blondes, but if this girl had not been a Muggle, he might have considered sleeping with her, given the opportunity and nothing and no-one better to do.
“That’s very nice of you,” said William.
Julian arrived home only moments after William, briefcase secured, did so. “Oh good,” she said, stepping out of one high heeled shoe and kicking the other away from her, when she saw first him and then glanced down toward his hands, one of which was occupied with the handle. “You found it.”
“Yes,” said William. “I’m afraid I may have ruined your brother’s evening, though.”
Julian frowned. “How so?” she asked.
“He had a guest,” said William. “A church friend. A Miss Murphy?”
He did not know how he had expected Julian to react to this, but freezing, her hands on her left earring, was not it. “Miss Murphy,” she repeated.
“Yes,” he said. “Miss Murphy. And everyone at your house was just as tense as you are right now when I walked in the room. Julian, what on Earth is going on?”
Julian finished removing her earring and handed it to him absent-mindedly, her hands going to her other ear to remove the right earring. The ring of diamonds around the central pearl in her engagement ring flashed pinpoint stars in the lamplight of their private sitting room. “Nothing,” she said, sitting down on the loveseat with the other earring still cradled in her hand. “I mean - nothing now, as far as I know,” said Julian quickly when William started to protest. “Miss Murphy is just...she and John have...a messy history. I was hoping she wouldn’t find out he was home this weekend.”
“What kind of messy history?” asked William, carefully stepping around one of her shoes to sit down beside her.
Julian’s hand clenched on the earring she still held in apparent irritation. “Oh for goodness’ sake, William, do you really want a play-by-play of every screwed-up interaction John’s ever had, and how our family dealt with it? What do you care about that? Don’t tell me she’s got you under her spell too!”
“Sweetheart, sweetheart,” said William, deciding to cut his losses and putting a soothing hand on her shoulder. “You know you’re the only woman who has me under any kind of enchantment. I was just curious - I know you and your brother are close - “
“Yes,” said Julian. “And it’s the same with my brother Joe...and, unfortunately, the same with Joe and Joanie. If you follow my very weird implications.”
William blinked. “Oh,” he said. “Oh, er - isn’t she - a bit old for - “
“Yes,” said Julian brusquely. “But Joe got infatuated with her, that summer before we got married, and - well - he and John had issues, and I was stuck in the middle of it, and I can’t stand that girl as a result.” She turned her earring over and over in her hands moodily. “You know, I’ve always told you, the fact I asked you to go on a diet doesn’t mean I expect you to never look a menu,” she said. “But that is one dish I would prefer you not even think about.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that,” said William, drawing her to him with one arm while his other hand came to rest on her thigh. “She wouldn’t be my kind of appetizer even if I didn’t have a much - “ he kissed her - “better - entree at home.”
Julian smiled, winding her hands around his neck. “Good,” she said, and kissed him.
Later, though, after Julian, her ego presumably soothed, fell asleep, he did think about that dish again, and what it was about what Julian had said which made him think there was something important which he couldn’t quite remember.